


Quarantined

by DreamsOfSleep



Series: Mars Landing [4]
Category: New Girl
Genre: Alternate Universe - Future, Angst, F/M, Future!Jess, Missing Scene, Oneshot, Science Fiction, Zombie Apocalypse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-15
Updated: 2016-06-15
Packaged: 2018-07-15 06:50:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,216
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7212262
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DreamsOfSleep/pseuds/DreamsOfSleep
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The quarantine from Jess's point of view.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Quarantined

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Quarantine](https://archiveofourown.org/works/6940639) by [DreamsOfSleep](https://archiveofourown.org/users/DreamsOfSleep/pseuds/DreamsOfSleep). 



She thought that once they got rescued from Earth, everything would be better. Their problems would be over. She should have known things would never be that easy. There are rarely easy happily-ever-afters in real life. 

You fight for every inch. 

\---

Nick reached out and held her hand as they both watched the shuttle descend to Earth. The space crew dropped the stairs to the shuttle and waved them aboard. They both ascended the stairs into the shuttle and took their seats. She remembers that Nick never stopped holding her hand even when they were both safely within the shuttle. She felt a thrill sitting next to him as the shuttle took off for Mars, the force of gravity pushing her back before releasing her as they soared off into the universe. His eyes never left her face, drinking her in. 

\---

When they got to Mars, government agents pulled them apart immediately after their feet touched the Martian soil outside of the shuttle. She remembers how tightly Nick had gripped her hand trying to keep them together, but alas, her hand slipped out of his hand. She remembers the pure soul-destroying anguish in his voice, screaming her name, the heartbroken look on his face as they dragged her away. 

\---

 _Quarantine._ That’s what they said. They said it was for her own protection and for his. She wasn’t used to the Martian air; it would make her sick. He shouldn’t have touched her; his immunity to the virus was unknown. His plan to rescue her was dangerous and foolhardy putting the entire human population on Mars at risk for an outbreak. He should be tried for his crimes in front of the Martian military tribunal. 

Winston argued for Nick, reminding them that he was one of the founding astronauts who built Mars Landing. They agreed to pardon his crimes of impersonating an intergalactic government pilot and stealing a government flight pod based on his “past history of heroism and courage at the founding Mars Landing” but he would have to be put into quarantine for one month. He also would not be able to see her until they determined how contagious she was, if she was a carrier of the virus. _No contact._

\--

She was alone for one month in isolation. The government scientists decided it was best. They dropped her daily meals down a complicated system of plastic tubes so that no human being would come in contact with her, so that no human would see her and be drawn in to comfort her and put the entire human population of Mars in danger. _‘It’s for everyone’s protection,’_ they said.

She stared at the gray walls of her underground cell and wished for him, wished even for the Hell they were in on Earth because it meant they were together. 

She missed the sun.

\---

After one month, Winston is able to set up visiting hours for Nick to see her. They are separated by a thick pane of glass. When he sees her down the hallway for the first time, he runs to her and puts his hands on the glass. He rests his forehead against the glass window and she does the same on the other side. They imagine what it is like to be touching again. 

\---

Nick visits her whenever he can. He brings her books, and yarn, and flowers so the isolation cell doesn’t look so bleak, so she remembers that a world outside that room still exists. 

\---

He still has to go to work as a long-haul truck driver for the government and she can see the exhaustion on his face, through his whole body, when he is with her. But he still insists on coming nearly every day. He says he hates the idea of her being all alone, that when he was looking for her, he had promised himself that she would never have to be alone again. Sometimes he falls asleep sitting up on a chair leaning against the glass.

\--

She wishes she could touch him again. She wishes for the simple luxury of being able to hold his hand, to curl up with him after he gets home from work. To lay in bed at night and be able to look at his face when sleep washes the stress of the day from his features.

She misses kissing him. Being able to see that look in his eye before he pulls her close, his want for her warming her all over. 

She misses his touch. His rough, familiar hands on her, tender and loving, feeling like they had always belonged on her, knowing she was his. 

She knows he misses her too. It kills him not being able to touch her, to love her with his hands. But if he never gets to touch her again, he’ll still settle for being in her presence. She always finds him watching her, loving her with his eyes from afar.

\---

The scientists come in at all hours and take gallons of her blood for analysis. They take skin and hair samples. She can feel the burn of their needles and their scalpels slicing her open every waking hour. Nick can only stand helplessly by with his hands pressed to the glass and watch her be used like a guinea pig in search of that elusive cure. Tears stream down his face, beating on the glass with his fists, screaming at them to set her free, sobbing against the glass. 

She wishes that he would move on. That he would stop killing himself trying to love her. Giving all of himself to love her, so that she might live. So that one day she might be free.

\---

He makes up stories about what their lives will be like when she is free, about having their own small house by a lake, about being married, about having children. He always says it that way, “when” they set you free, not “if.” She can see the desperation in his eyes, trying to hang onto that fragile hope. It feels like a lie, but they both want to live in that delusion.

\---

The days all seem to run together underground without the sun. 

He tries. He tries so hard. He celebrates birthdays and Christmases and Fourth of Julys underground with her, trying to cheer her up. She makes him mudpies from the Martian soil that he can’t eat and knits him scarves he can’t wear but he says he loves it all anyway. 

\---

One insignificant day that feels like any other day, she hears the scientists say the word _‘cure’_ reverentially and she is free. 

For the first time she is able to walk outside the small underground room and beyond the glass. 

When he sees her down the hallway, he runs to her and throws his arms around her holding her close for the first time in years. 

She can feel his face is damp on her shoulder. When she touches her own face, she realizes she’s crying too. 

He is hers again. She won’t let them take him away from her. He’ll never have to live here on Mars all alone again, hiding all his love away from the world without someone to love him back. 

“Take me home,” she whispers to him. 


End file.
